Survey looks at industry's reaction to H1N1

August 23, 2010

PETERBOROUGH, ON, CANADA — A recent survey polled 131 JanSan distributors and their customers regarding their thoughts on last year''s H1N1 scare and its impact on the professional cleaning industry, according to a press release.

The survey was commissioned by Enviro-Solutions, a leading manufacturer of environmentally preferable cleaning products, the release noted.

Because the H1N1 virus made international headlines for several months but since then has drifted out of view, respondents were asked if they thought concerns about it were exaggerated or unfounded from the start: Slightly more than 50 percent said no; 30 percent responded yes while the rest were unsure, the release stated.

According to the release, when asked who might be considered responsible for sensationalizing the problem if the H1N1 scare was indeed overstated or unfounded, sixty percent answered, "Nobody; we simply did not know how serious the epidemic would be:" Most of the rest blamed any sensationalism associated with the scare on "the media."

The respondents were then asked a series of questions specifically regarding the way in which the professional cleaning industry handled the H1N1 scare. A vast majority of the respondents — more than 77 percent — said the industry was "cautious but correct" in how it dealt with the scare, meaning they did not over or under react, the release added.